Thursday, April 09, 2015

Washington D.C. Cherry Blossoms

This is the time of year when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom in northern Virginia. When we first moved up here, I made visiting the tidal basins to see the cherry blossoms in D.C. a priority. It's pretty much up there with seeing the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Whitehouse as things to see and do in D.C.

Of course, I couldn't just go see the blossoms, I wanted to go at DAWN to take pictures. My husband, a very patient man, agreed to get up with me at 4 a.m. on a Sunday to drive into D.C. to do this. When he mentioned that he was doing this to one of his coworkers, his friend laughed and said, "I can see it now, the pictures are going to be: cherry blossom, cherry blossom, MUGGER, cherry blossom."

Turns out, downtown D.C. isn't as safe as you would think, especially during weird hours of the morning, and BTW the only way you are going to find a public parking space in downtown D.C. is at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Well, we weren't mugged and it was a wonderful experience. I'm glad we were able to see it before it got crowded.

The flush of spring flowers everywhere right now is simply breathtaking. Forsythia, cherry blossoms, dogwood, ornamental cherry.,,sooo pretty. It almost looks like a Disney movie set, no?

It wasn't long before it got really crowded and it was time to go. I hate crowds! I also hate the congested city traffic associated with such crowds. God, that makes me sound old!

The cherry blossom festival is pretty much a "been-there-done-that" one-time thing as far as I'm concerned and we haven't been back. I liken it to seeing stalactites and stalagmites...if you've seen one, you've seen them all!

Still, it's a beautiful thing and I highly recommend anyone who is in the D.C. area this weekend to see the cherry blossoms if they can.